Problem Solving (Communication)

A systematic process undertaken by an individual or a group of [Page 407]individuals to identify and evaluate situations that are difficult, disagreeable, or harmful and to decide on methods to resolve such situations.

Scholars credited with early research and writings on the topic of problem solving include John Dewey in the 1910s and the team of James McBurney and Kenneth Hance in the 1930s. In the early 1980s, a group of Pennsylvania State University researchers studied nine problem-solving groups to determine whether the order of steps they followed made a difference in their rate of success. Reporting for the group, Randy Hirokawa noted that uniformity in the steps followed was not essential. However, those groups that approached problems in an analytical and evaluative manner before attempting to solve them had the highest rates of success; those that looked for solutions without taking the steps of identification and evaluation were less successful.

Writing from a business communications standpoint in 1997, Jay Knippen and Thad Green noted that a group problem-solving approach involving both management and workforce representatives both increased motivation and benefited the organization. They outlined the fol lowing seven steps: (1) establishing goals, (2) identifying problems and identifying constraints, (3) identifying alternatives, (4) evaluating the alternatives, (5) selecting the best solution, and (6) creating an implementation. For the final step, implementation, they suggested the following six-question approach: (1) What needs to be done? (2) How it should be done? (3) Who should do what? (4) When does it need to be done? (5) Where it should be done? (6) What is the budget? For more infor mation, see Dewey (1910), Hirokawa (1983), Knippen and Green (1997), and McBurney and Hance (1939).